The Woman in Black

The Woman in Black is a ghost story written by Susan Hill. A new film adaptation starring Daniel Radcliffe opened today. I'm not sure if I'm going to see it. We'll see. I don't see many scary movies because it doesn't take much to freak me out. However, I've seen the play and I am curious about it. This is a ghost story, not a slasher, or flesh-eating zombie movie.

The plot is simple. Arthur Kipps, a young solicitor, has been given the job to go to the home of an old woman who has recently died to go through her papers and settle her affairs. The house is at the end of a causeway, and at high tide there is no way to leave or get to the house.

At the old woman's funeral he sees a mysterious woman in black. Then he senses the woman's presence and sees her again while he is alone in the house and cut off from everyone. He also hears terrifying noises out on the causeway. I won't give more of the story away, but suffice it to say, the rest is terrifying.

I've actually seen the play twice. The first time I saw it was at the Utah Shakespeare Festival. My friend saw the play in London and she told me it really scared her, so I was trepidatious before I saw it. I enjoyed the play at the Shakespeare Festival, but I didn't get as frightened as I could have because there were a bunch of high school students in the audience, and they were very vocal during the play. It kept taking me out of the story, making me annoyed every time they said, "there she is!" and "when is she going to appear?" As much as I didn't want to be freaked out, I did want to enjoy the scary elements, and I couldn't do it with the constant commentary.

Then, a little more than a year ago I saw the play in London. The production was in an small, old theatre that had the perfect atmosphere for a ghost story (the theatre is also said to be haunted, but I didn't learn that until after I saw the play). My friend and I couldn't get seats together, so I sat by myself. Even though I had seen the play before and knew what was going to happen, the play was directed differently, so there was still an element of the unknown. The second time was much scarier. I enjoyed it very much.

If I decide to see the movie I'll post about. If I don't see the movie, you probably won't hear anymore about it from me unless it's a huge hit or unless I see the play again.

If you see it, I'd love to hear what you think of it.